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Rocpoc, Flickr Commons |
In
Understanding Writing Blocks, Keith Hjortshoj offers an example of the importance of the material side of writing.
It’s an example I frequently tell my students.
Hjortshoj
describes a student, Paul, who is struggling to complete college courses
because he can’t turn in written assignments. It’s not because Paul is
unintelligent or unmotivated. When Paul was in grade school,
his father, a professional writer, insisted on reading and critiquing all of Paul’s
assignments before they were turned in to a teacher.
According
to Hjortshoj, “by the time he graduated from high school Paul dreaded writing
anything because he knew he would have to show it to his father and knew it
would be terrible.”
Speed
forward to college. Paul was failing his college courses because he couldn’t
finish even a paragraph without feeling like it was flawed.
One
day, Paul is at last able to turn in an essay.
The
night before, he’s snarled up in his usual anxieties about writing, tossing out
paragraphs, when he realizes he’s run out of fresh paper and has to use
crumpled sheets from his waste bin.
Paul
is able to complete the essay by using ruined paper—and he continues to do so
in his other courses by turning in final drafts composed on physically imperfect sheets of paper—ones
with “some little flaw—a dot of ink maybe, or a little tear” on it.
What’s
going on here?
In
Paul’s case, by interacting with the physical objects involved in writing (the
sheets of paper), he is able to deal with an imaginary audience (his father,
the Critic), one not really in his Present moment. When he stains or tears the
paper, Paul is making contact with an aspect of the Present moment (the paper)
and recognizing that an aspect of the Past (his father) is not actually in the
room.
The
physical aspects of writing serve two important functions toward mindful
writing.
#1:
Those physical aspects—our typing hands, the pen we use, the notebook or
journal we select—are all bells calling us to the Present moment and to the
language and ideas passing through our minds in the now.
They
help us see what is really present as well as what is not present (an
audience). Remember, most of the time, we
are alone when we write and any audience is a construction of our internal
dialog.
#2:
The material aspects of writing also have the potential to adjust our
intrapersonal voice—our internal conversation.
That
is, certain materials suggest a certain relationship to ourselves and to
audience.
Writing
a draft of an article, for instance, solely on Post-Its sets us up for one type
of relationship to ourselves and to audience.
Post-Its are a forum for informal,
note-like writing. We associate Post-Its with low-stakes writing, tasks not expecting perfection or audience.
Writing
a book draft with crayons or Magic Markers sets us up for another type of
relationship to our words and to audience. Crayons
and Magic Markers carry the connotation of the child-like, the free and
imaginative, and they help kick out any high-stakes professional audience
because I certainly won’t be showing my crayon writings to an editor.
The
physical side of writing can also hinder us. Think of the person who wants to
start a novel and purchases a fancy journal. I feel immediately worried for
this person’s writing ability. This leather-bound journal with the expensive
paper is practically soaked in critique: it’s expecting perfect words from the
get-go.
So what's inside your sheet of paper?
Have your writing materials ever brought you to the Present moment as you write? Do tell: please post a comment.
So what's inside your sheet of paper?
Have your writing materials ever brought you to the Present moment as you write? Do tell: please post a comment.
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